11/25/02 - SUICIDE BOMBING IN JERUSALEM - 2002-11-25

At least eleven people have been killed in the latest attack by Palestinian terrorists in Israel. The November 21st suicide bombing of a crowded bus in Jerusalem also wounded some fifty others. The victims included a sixty-seven-year-old grandmother and her eight-year-old grandson.

The terrorist group Hamas claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem attack. Later, Palestine Islamic Jihad also claimed responsibility. Both groups have committed numerous acts of terrorism in recent years.

On November 15th, less than a week before the Jerusalem attack, Palestine Islamic Jihad terrorists attacked security personnel after they completed escorting a procession of Jewish worshipers from Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs. Eleven Israelis were killed. Last June, Palestine Islamic Jihad terrorists killed seventeen people and wounded more than three dozen in the suicide bombing of a bus on the road between Tiberias and Tel Aviv.

The terrorist group Hamas was responsible for a July 31st suicide bombing at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University that killed seven people, including five Americans. About eighty people were wounded, some of them Arabs. Other terrorist attacks by Hamas this year include the suicide bombing of another Jerusalem bus in June that killed nineteen people. And last March, Hamas terrorists killed twenty-nine people in Netanya as they were gathering to observe the Passover holiday.

President George W. Bush said he was “greatly disturbed” by the latest suicide bombing in Jerusalem. “It is clear,” said Mr. Bush at the NATO summit in Prague, “that those who want to use terror to stop any process for peace are still active. In order to achieve peace, all countries in [the Middle East] must. . .do their best to fight off terror.”

President Bush was joined by British Prime Minister Tony Blair in condemning the suicide bombing. As Mr. Blair said, “the whole world wants to see us. . .taking this very firm stand against terrorism, against issues of weapons of mass destruction, but also [to] try and make sure that we provide the secure future with lasting peace in the Middle East. And I think those issues are all very much linked together.”

In the Middle East, said President Bush, “Two states living side by side in peace is the vision. And we will continue to work with those who share that vision -- for the sake of the Israeli people, for the sake of the Palestinians.”

Reflecting the Views of the U.S. Government as Broadcast on The Voice of America